The Mantis-Eye Experiment

Second, HavocWare, who has contributed a couple nifty tidbits to the episode capsules, sent along the following eBay auction. So all you wacky cosplayers can uh, cosplay in style... or whatever it is you do. Funny, but also sort of creepy.

Finally, the webhost for this site, Mancubus.net, will be going down in a week or two to change locations (changeover shouldn't take more than a couple days). I'll let you know when that's going down, but if this site is down next week before I get a chance, now you'll know why. That's all for now kids.

I ran across an announcement that James Urbaniak, along with the playwright and director, will be appearing on July 21 at the Barnes & Noble on Union Square to discuss the play Thom Pain. Despite living several hours away, I'm seriously thinking about attending, as Thom Pain is a great play, and James Urbaniak does an incredible job with the role.

You can find more info here. Mind you, it's moderated, so you probably won't be able to ask any Venture Bros. questions, but fans of Thom Pain (which is supposed to be excellent) and James Urbaniak in general should check it out if they can.

DVDs--right now the plan is to get them out some time before season two premieres, potentially with a teaser for season two as one of the extras. However there's no official release date yet and we haven't started production on it. Just talking right now.

Part of me wants to hear the cussing in all its inappropriate glory, part of me thinks it's funnier and somehow more impactful when you hear bleeps. In the end, it may not be up to me. It could be that taking the bleeps out would change the "rating" on the DVD and cause it to require a "for mature audiences only" sticker or some crap that would hurt sales. Or maybe it will already have to have that because it's TV-14, which now seems to be quickly becoming TV-MA. I'll have to find out from the powers that be.

[The pilot episode] would probably be included as sort of a "special feature" and not as the first episode in continuity. I think we're stripping the episodes of their confusing production numbers, too, and just referring to them by their titles (to this day I still see people on the message boards insisting that the boys are still alive on the grounds that the trial episode takes place after "Return to Spider-Skull Island").

Commentary: It is doubtful that you could keep a pair of chatty, complainy idiots like us from commenting on our failures. And commentaries are so easy to do, we could record them all late one night at the Astrobase if need be.

So all of this is indeed good news for everyone asking about the pilot, bleeps and commentary. No word yet on what's up with Past Tense though.

So in a similar vein, I've (finally) added a new Mantis-Poll which asks what special feature you'd most like to see on the S1 DVD.

Update - Aug. 30, 10:47am - Quick update here... two months later, but I thought I'd mention this DVD set will not be the official design. I've gotten a few e-mails and questions about this. While very cool, it's designed by an aspiring DVD box artist and is in no way official.

We're in the process of refining the character and background styles for optimum beauty and functionality and I'm pretty excited about the direction we're going. Doc's turned in his first script, and of course it's pretty damn funny. And of course I can't talk about it except to say that Phantom Limb and Dr. Girlfriend are major players and Brock kicks ass as dramatically as possible.

So that's good news (especially for people who want more Dr. Girlfriend). Also he updated about the MoCCA show in New York, but I forgot to mention that here, and now it's over and you didn't meet Jackson Publick! Can you ever forgive me?

Also I'd just like to mention that the hit stats for this site amuse me (but I'm easily amused). It was getting a pretty large number of hits per day back in January and February (700 - 1000 per day on average, the highest ever clocked in at over 1300), but it's slowly dwindled since the news of the renewal, so it only pulls in around 200 or 300 a day now (sometimes less). That is, except on Monday nights after VB airs when it jumps to 700 or better. So I'm happy people are checking out the episode capsules. That's it for now.

Two scripts in the pipeline so far (one mine, one Doc's), neither of which will be the season premiere (yes, we're writing them out of order again, and hopefully we can find a way to keep the adultswim website from confusing everyone this season as a result). Obviously can't tell you much about them, lest the surprise be ruined, but I will say that we learn a bit more about Baron Ünderbheit and The Phantom Limb, respectively...and they're funny. Actual animation production will begin in just under a month, by which time we should have another two scripts done--hopefully one of them will be the premiere episode. We know what it'll be and all, we're just holding off on writing that one because it's so heavy with cliffhanger resolution and has much responsibility riding on its shoulders, so it has to be great.

So there's your season two progress report. There's also news that the regular cast will be returning, and J.G. Thirlwell will be scoring the show again. Also for people in the San Diego area, Jackson and Doc will be appearing at Comicon, so you can pester them about stuff there. In fact, this update is so chock full of meaty, uh, news, that I can't even summarize it all here! So go read it!

Also, in somewhat sadder news (and I hate to end on a downer, but I guess I don't have a choice), the Thursday airings of VB are no more. It's still got the 1am Sunday timeslot, though, so don't fret. Also, yes, Careers in Science is now rated TV-MA instead of TV-14 thanks to Brock's inability to say no to a slutty Russian cosmonaut.